Aurors: The Fist of Mars

Harry's Announcement

Ron Weasley was very disheartened by the lack of snogging in his life at the moment. The night after the Battle of Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione had climbed the spiral staircase in the Gryffindor dormitories, up higher than the seventh year dorms at the top of the tower, and sat in a little window seat that looked over the cliff and the lake below. They had talked for hours about everything from Ron's time on the run without Harry and Hermione to their plans now that the war was over. And they had kissed. They had kissed quite a lot. And though it was sweet and innocent, and though he had gotten to put his hands in a few more places during his previous relationship with Lavender Brown, Ron had decided it was better. It was definitely better. Because he loved Hermione Granger, and that feeling that had squirmed inside of him whenever they argued was finally able to be taken out and looked at in the light of day. He loved her, and it was obvious in retrospect that he had loved her for quite some time.

But now Hermione was on the opposite side of the world. In the months that followed, they had found it harder and harder to be alone. Wizards from all around Europe were showing up for weeks at a time to volunteer their services. There was the architect who must have been a hundred and a thirty years old who bragged about restoring the greatest pureblooded manors in the country. There was the family of wizards from Salem who had traveled across the Atlantic to help out because they were so grateful that the war had stop before spreading to the Americas. At one point the entire surviving team and staff of the Holyhead Harpies had turned up to volunteer, and then the Tornadoes and the Bats and pretty much every team in the league had come in turns. There were impromptu Quidditch matches and feasts and lectures on advancements in magical research. Between the hard work and the parties, Ron and Hermione hardly had any time to themselves. And then she left to go find her parents, and Ron was alone.

He sat outside The Burrow now in a wizard's tent. They had torn down the burnt-out shell of the house in Ottery St. Catchpole and framed the new house last week. It had taken the whole family to erect the structure. Harry had donated money for supplies. He'd called it a loan, but Ron knew his parents would never be able to pay him back, and Harry would never bring it up. The past few days had been spent floating large stones across the garden to rebuild the wall and directing a dozen hammers to tap the nails in the floorboards into place. The original house had been build in two nights by Arthur Weasley's family the week before his wedding. As their family grew, the house grew up and a little to the left until it became the lop-sided structure that Ron had always known. The final room had been built when Ron was still a baby and Molly was pregnant with Ginny. Ron didn't like how neat the new house looked. Planned and built as a single structure, it stood too straight. They would paint the walls tomorrow, and move furniture in the next day.

As Ron lay back on his cot inside the crowded tent—the same one Hermione had taken on the run with them— he watched his mother carry dishes out to the yard. Arthur Weasley was in a corner tinkering with a muggle radio. Percy, Charlie, and Bill had gone back to their homes to pick up the pieces. George lay on a cot reading a book about business and keeping to himself as he had done a lot this summer. Ginny, who was cooking dinner outside on a camp fire, had come in to search through the crates of food supplies for some herbs. Her bright red hair hung down around her face as she craned over the boxes, and he wondered when in the last year she had grown up so much.

When Molly called them to supper, Ron climbed off of the cot and trudged outside. George was the last one out, and Ron held the tent flap for him. "I was thinking," Ron said, "that next week when this is all set and Mum and Dad don't need us here, I could go with you into London and help clean up the shop. I reckon people will be wanting it open soon. We already missed the back-to-school rush."

"Hmmm," George said, and he forced a smile. "Yes, perhaps we need to print a catalog to send to every kid at Hogwarts."

"It'll be anarchy," Ron said with a smile. "Complete and utter chaos if you do that. Extendable ears around every corner. Instant darkness during every exam."